Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-21
A MEXICAN FIESTA
4 SEASON OF RELIGIOUS CERt-
MONIES AND INDULGENCE.

Brutality of the EuIl Fight-The Native
Mexican an Inveterate Gambler-vs-
r;ors Games of Chance-An Orderly
Crowd.
! Livery Mexican town has patron saint
whose duty it IS supposed to be to watch and
Cuarl over the interests OF the town and its
inhabitants.
! TIE patron saint of the old town across
the river, Paso del Norte, is Our Lady Of
| Guadalupe The natives begin their ce:e-
brat:on On TIE Sth and keep it up till TIE
2tth, when they have to quit SO as to be
| ready 70 begin the Christmas festivities On
The 25ta
The celebration or "festa,'' as it is called,
consists Of: l. Religious ceremonies con-
Quoted daily in the celebrated old church
known to be over $40 years old. 2. At
tending three or four bull fights a week. g.
Gambling, and lastly, drinking plenty of
pulque, mescal and tequile and having
good time generally.
Than the bull fehts nothing could be
more brutal or disgusting. Take dog
! fight, a cock fight or a fight between two
men, and you know that they are but follow
ing out the instincts of nature, and if either
contestant gets enough he can show the
White feather and generally get away. The
bull fight is different; the poor brute is
goaded and scored before he is turned into
the ring; there he is again goaded and
speared and finally killed. He stands no
more show than a mouse in box with a cat.
An INvETERATE GAMBLER.
Sunday / went over to see life on the
plaza. The native Mexican is an inveterate
gambler. He will risk almost anything on
the turn of die. The plaza, 4 square in the
center of the village, was turned into an ex-
tensive gambling establishment, and the
games were numerous, and those run By
Mexicans depended entirely on chance. Tie
American faker was, however, on hand, an.
would sell you 8 bill rolled in piece of
paper for s., and few other snaps of that
description, but the main games were MeSi-
can. First in Importance was the national
game of monte. It consists primarily in
dealing two cards from the bottom Of the
pack and then betting as to which of the two
will be turned up first. There are man.
notifications of the game which would re-
quire an experienced person to describe.
have not been here long enough to acquir1
that experience
Another game very popular, especially
with the ladies, is kind of an odd or even
affair. There is a funnel shaped continuance
with the bottom sloping to the center: in tho
center are several stops Were single marble
can drop in and a general receptacle to holl
them all. A handful Of marbles is throw.
and the gambler bets whether an odd or eve:i
number will drop in the general receptacle.
The game most numerous, however, anl
70 l,o
especially of tie American population, arnong
whOn was large delegation from the Cali
fornia excursion in town over the Illinois
Central, was played with dice The layort
consisted of table, six cards numbered ].
:, 3, 4, D and 6, dice box, three dice, a
few silver coins and any amount Of t!aco3
pronounced "clackers'), a Mexican coin
nolninally worth s cents, being quarter
OF real, which Is one-eighth of q dollar,
but in hard American money cents will
buy four of them.
DEALER AND DICE.
The dealer shakes the boz and throws the
dice on the table still covered by the box
The e-cursioniso puts his money, say on the
card mar.;ed three, The boz, is lifted; i
there is three u tilc decler pays even; i;
thc-e are pair OF tlTees up he pays two To-
one If there are three threes UP he pays
three for ono. It is apparently square
game, and tie onlooler who is interested
may spend handful of ''claclers'' before
he discovers there are several per cent, II
not more, in favor Of the dealer.
There are several other games OF less i'm
poItance, among which 7 noted nodifca-
ton of the wheel OF fortune. In this, how
ever. every turn drew prize A ''clacker''
purchased the right to turn the wheel, and
wherever the arrow stopped it would point
to en- article OF some value, ranging from
two hnirpins to cheap cotton handkerchief.
= hat Tie young cowboy whom / saw gather
in about dozen hairpins VIII do with them
is still mystery to me.
The crowd in attendance was q VERY
orderly one # any one got more teqUile OF
board than Re could handle he could lie down
anywhere and calmly sleep of the effects OF
his pota5!ons and be perfectly happy. Ionl-
saw one oCarrelsoma fellow, and he was
irunl-cn American.--El Paso CTe1) Cor.
Detroit Free Press.